Aloha Specialties — Restaurant in Las Vegas

Been coming here to eat for over 20+ years and I'm sorry to say, but for the last couple years, my visits here for the food have been less than satisfying. Lately, and more frequently than not, they have had many of everyone's "favorites" sold out and this happens before noon time. Or may I say, lunch hour. My personal favorite was their teriyaki rib eye steak and when available, it was absolutely delicious and gratifying. It used to be available more often than not nowadays and this was the very main reason I would take my family and many friends to eat here as this also became one of their favorite dishes. Their sweet and sour spare ribs are also just as amazing but it is also sold out way before noon and lunchtime. This forces many a customer including my family, friends and I to settle for their other offerings which is not what we were looking forward to when having to travel all the way to the end of downtown Las Vegas. We used to think and believe that it was well worth the travel to make it here no matter where you were staying at in Las Vegas. Even after making the drive here, sometimes through heavy traffic, we used to think and believe that it was well worth the wait to stand in the long lines coming out of their entrance doors. My most recent visit here has now convinced me as well as my family and friend that it is no longer worth the time and effort it takes to sit down and enjoy a meal here. Their other dishes are foods that you can get at many other restaurants around the city of Las Vegas and they would taste just as good, if not better. Suffice it to say, the quality, flavor, and mystique about the food here at Aloha has not been the same as it used to be before it became very popular, busy, and well known for its great flavor. In my opinion, it has become an "also-ran". It used to be a leader, a champion, and a favorite when it came to great Hawaiian style food and restaurants but now, it isn't. I usually am loyal when it comes to food places such as these but my visits here recently have begun to erode that loyalty. If you must have the type of food that they serve , you're better off visiting the one "closest" to you because you won't find anything special here. I mean, I used to look forward to coming here because of the flavor and quality of the food, it would feel like a party in my mouth everytime. Their teriyaki sauce is not as good as it once was, it actually made my steak, pork, and chicken taste like fish even though I didn't order any of their fish. Their steak and beef teriyaki is a little too dry to my liking. No tenderness at all. The chicken was bland if anything and needed just about any type of seasoning available just to make it consumable. The only thing that I found good in flavor that was a part of my last order, was the macaroni salad. This was still top notch as I remembered it to be from my first visit over 20 years ago. If I ever come here again, it will be to try out their beef stew or Korean chicken. Their teriyaki dishes does not cut it for me, my family or friends anymore. The reputation and history of this place probably justifies the long lines and the wait that everyone has to experience when arriving here to eat lunch but the...

Growing up in Hawaii and now living on the "9th Island," I have definitely experienced some excellent local cuisine in my life. I first tried Aloha Specialties back in the late 90s during my first visit to Las Vegas. The experience was wonderful because prior to that visit, I haven't had any good local Hawaiian food in years due to my time away from the islands (serving in the military). After my late 90s visit, I revisited Las Vegas in 2011 with my family to meet up with my Mom and Dad. This is the visit we always remember because the time spent with them was wonderful and marks the first time for my family trying Aloha Specialties.

Fast forward in time...after years serving in the military between my wife and I, our final stop in our careers brought us back to Las Vegas in 2014, which we ended up retiring here. Since our arrival, we've tried so many local Hawaiian restaurants in the city, but still manage to revisit Aloha Specialties from time-to-time because this restaurant will always hold a piece of family history for us. In fact, we still try to sit in the same back, corner booth we did from the 2011 visit (even though the restaurant experienced a renovation), just to relive the memory.

The service here is always outstanding; I have NEVER received bad customer service from the employees during any of my previous visits. Not to mention, the service is amazingly fast even during peak hours. The price-to-quantity/quality ratio is phenomenal; the amount of rice they serve here is remarkable. I also appreciate how this restaurant supports the men and women of the Armed Forces and its Veterans.

Unfortunately, I don't want to list all the food I've tried here because I think I've managed to try ~70-80% of the menu items by now; however, I will provide a small list of my family's favorites (to include mine). We really enjoy getting the Mix Plate, Local Plate, Aloha Bento, Korean Spicy Chicken, Saimin, and Wonton Min. During our most recent visit, my wife stated that the Korean Spicy Chicken is in her top-3 favorite chicken dishes ever!

We definitely will be back in the future and I highly recommend this restaurant to all 9th Island residents and visitors from...

I was staying at the Golden Nugget nearby for work and a friend recommended heading here for dinner and told me what to order, the saimin and the spam musubis.

There were signs in the casino pointing the way and I headed up to the second floor. I got there around 7pm and there was no one else in line so I was able to quickly order and it took about 5 minutes to get my food to go so I could eat it in my hotel room.

It was packaged really well with the noodle soup in two containers, one for just the broth and one for the noodles and toppings, and the local plate which has teriyaki beef and chicken as well as 2 musubis and the macaroni salad. I definitely over ordered.

I got back to my room and started with the local plate. It was pretty yummy. The teriyaki chicken was crispy which was nice and the beef was tender. I was a little wary of the spam musubis because I'd never had them before but they were really tasty and huge. I left the saimin for about 45 minutes but it was still really hot when I tucked in. I was only able to finish half of it. The broth was nice with a good flavor of dashi and very clean, there were plenty of noodles, char siu and fish cakes. I should've added the vegetables for something green but I only managed to finish half of it anyway. The macaroni salad was okay but it wasn't really anything special. I could take it or leave it.

My meal was less than $20 bucks and I only managed to eat about half half of it so good value for money. Excellent recommendation and I would recommend it too if you're in the area and want some...